Installation

What you need

• macOS (Apple Silicon or Intel), 64-bit Windows 10 or 11, or 64-bit Linux.
• About 1 GB of space, plus whatever the shows' sounds and videos need.
• A microphone, if the show moves forward on the lines. Without one, you move it forward by hand.
• To project, a second screen set to Extend, not Duplicate.

The program has been tested on macOS. Windows and Linux have not yet been tested on a real computer.

You need the internet to download the speech model, which doesn't come with the program. Once downloaded it works offline.

Installing

The installers aren't signed yet, so the system warns you the first time you launch the program. This is normal.

macOS

1. Open the .dmg file that fits your Mac: arm64 for Apple Silicon, x64 for Intel.
2. Drag Deus ex machina into Applications.
3. On the first launch macOS blocks it. Go to System Settings → Privacy & Security and choose Open Anyway.

Windows

1. Open the Deus-ex-machina-…-setup.exe file. You don't need administrator rights.
2. If SmartScreen appears, choose More info → Run anyway.

Linux

1. Make the file executable: chmod +x Deus-ex-machina-*.AppImage.
2. Open it.

The first launch

A four-step procedure guides you. None of the steps is mandatory, and you can reopen it from Help → Initial configuration.

1. Welcome: it tells you where your data will be kept.
2. Microphone: you choose it and check that the bar moves while you speak.
3. The speech model: it turns voice into words. Download the one for the actors' language, or choose a folder.
4. The first script: the sample one, with lights, a sound and a video, or your own.

You can also change the microphone later, from the Microphone menu. The change applies from the next performance.

Speech models

Speech models don't come with the program: you download them once from Go → Speech models, with Download. Each of the program's five languages has two:

• the Small model, about 50 MB: light, it runs on any computer;
• the Large model, from 1.2 to 1.9 GB: more accurate with a distant voice and the echo of the hall, but it needs more memory and takes longer to start.

If in the hall the heard text stops for a few seconds and loses whole lines, first bring the microphone closer to the actors, then try the large one.

The model you have just downloaded is the one that listens to its language. If a language has more than one, choose which one listens with Use. The change applies from the next performance. Uninstall takes it off the disk. For a theatre with no network, download it before you leave.

For another language, or another Vosk model, point to its folder with Choose a folder….

The advice is one microphone per actor, with the computer connected to the mixer output.

System permissions

• Microphone: macOS asks once. If you denied it, turn it back on in Privacy & Security → Microphone.
• Firewall: it may ask you to accept incoming connections. They are needed for QLab, for Art-Net nodes and for recognition on another computer. Without these, you can refuse.
• USB accessories: macOS may ask for permission for the DMX or MIDI interface.

The licence

Without a licence the program is free, up to 16 DMX channels. Licences are bought on the site and apply on the computers you activate, usually two at once.

Everything can be prepared without a licence too. On stage, what the licence does not cover stays silent:

• the DMX channels beyond those of your tier stay at 0;
• the audio and video departments, with any program, without Audio and Video;
• the surtitles, without Surtitles;
• without Touring and venues the first setup of each script applies, and venues do not pass instruments and patch on to the setups.

In the Control booth a light says what stays silent.

1. Open Configuration → Licence and press Activate this computer.
2. The program shows an eight-character code and opens the site in the browser. If it does not open, press Open the site.
3. On the site, log in with your account and confirm the code. A few seconds later the licence appears in the program.

The licence file stays on the computer and works without a network too. The program updates it by itself when there is internet. If 30 days go by without an update you still have a week: connect the computer and press Update the licence, or the program goes back to free until you do.

To move to another computer, disconnect the old one with Disconnect this computer, or free it up from your account on the site. You can free up at most three computers in 30 days.

Before buying you can try every function for two days with Try everything for 48 hours, once for each major version. It needs an activated computer, even without licences.

Where the data is

It holds the database, the show files, the logs and the models. You open it from File → Open data folder.

Updating and uninstalling

To update, install over the previous version: your data stays. If the database needs updating, the program first makes a copy of it in the backup/ folder and keeps the last five. If something goes wrong, it puts the copy back and tells you.

To uninstall, on macOS drag the app to the Trash, on Windows use Installed apps, on Linux delete the file. The data folder stays: delete it by hand if you also want to remove the shows.